The Media’s Assualt on Israel–Finding the Truth

This month’s guest blogger is Yossi Bar Negev from Israel. Yossi is a passionate voice for Israel. With his knowledge of scripture and watchful eye on the media, he brings clarity to the complex issues surrounding Israel.

A Modern Fable:An Israeli is on vacation visiting a zoo in the USA when he sees a little girl lean against a lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, right before the eyes of her terrified screaming parents.

The Israeli runs to the cage, hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the Israeli brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.A reporter was watching the whole event. The reporter says to the Israeli: ‘Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I’ve seen a man do in my whole life.’ The Israeli modestly replies, ‘Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in great danger and had to act swiftly, as I felt it was necessary.’

The reporter says, ‘Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist, and tomorrow’s paper will have this story on the front page. So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliations do you happen to have?’

The Israeli replies, ‘ Proud to serve in the Israeli Defense Force, and I vote for the Likud Party.’

The journalist makes notes in his writing pad and leaves hurriedly to write his newspaper’s headline.

The following morning the Israeli buys a paper to see news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:

Moral of the story - don’t believe anything you read about Israel in the mainstream media.

Think I’m over exaggerating? Take a look at these actual examples:

The Mohammed Al Dura affair, September 30, 2000. French media (France 2) set the world ablaze with its reporting of the “death” of the 12-year-old Mohammed Al Dura, supposedly shot by Israeli soldiers while crouching in abject fear behind his protective yet helpless father.

The iconic photo appeared on the front page of newspapers everywhere. But it was all a lie, a PR photo-op for the “Palestinian cause”. The truth is revealed in a report by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (Camera).

The Goldstone Report. What can we expect when the United Nations decides it has to investigate an Israeli action? Operation Cast Lead in September 2008 was a response to seven years of Hamas mortar and rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities and towns. The Hamas rockets were fired from hospitals, schools and mosques. Hamas fighters wore civilian clothes and used women and children as human shields.

Was any of this mentioned in the Goldstone report? Nope! According to the learned gentleman, it was the Israelis who targeted civilians, not the other way around. It was a feeding frenzy for the world media. Israelis were monsters, baby-killers, destroyers of mosques who were literally starving the poor Palestinians.

In contrast, on April 1, 2011, when Judge Goldstone retracted his claim that the Israeli government deliberately targeted civilians, saying, “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document“, the silence was deafening.

This story wasn’t a scoop; it was an annoyance that needed to be hidden somewhere between the want ads and the daily horoscopes.

Israeli attack on the Gaza Aid Flotilla, May 31, 2010. The tale (according to mainstream media) goes that there were these peaceful activists sailing their boats on a humanitarian mission to the stricken people of Gaza. They were simply bearing needed supplies like expired medications and teddy bears for the kids. But those nasty Israelis felt compelled to enforce their cruel and inhuman blockade and had the nerve to board the ship, Mavi Marmara armed with the most heinous of weapons – paint ball guns!

The intrepid reporters covering the event conveniently “forgot” a few details. Like the paint ball guns – mentioning them would have shown that the soldiers never intended to use lethal force. Like the metal rods, slingshots, bats and broken bottles that the “activists” assembled to greet the Israeli soldiers – because obviously they did intend physical harm.

The ship crew’s preparations were caught on the ship’s security cameras. The IDF cameras recorded the actual violence once they boarded. The soldiers only used their side arms as a last resort—when they received permission from their superiors—to save their own lives.

One would think that with video evidence the media would have had a difficult time concocting a “blame Israel” story. Think again! Splashed across the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald was this:

My friends, make no mistake about it; this is an all-out attack by the media on Israel. To accomplish their purposes they count on a dumbed-down society that believes anything an “expert” says, who never bothers to dig any deeper for its news than the headlines of the New York Times or maybe CNN.

It will be interesting to follow the “fair and balanced” coverage of these future events:

1. Further attacks on Israel’s borders similar to the Nakba protests.

2. The Palestinian Authority which has formed a unity government with Hamas will request statehood admission to the United Nations General Assembly in September.

So how can you find out what’s really happening? The following are some recommended bloggers: Joel Chernoff, Joseph Finkelstein, Caroline Glick, Daniel Greenfield, and Melanie Phillips.

Some timely articles are published in Frontpage Magazine, Israel Unity Coalition, Jewish World Review, Family Security Matters, and One Jerusalem.

Other excellent resources include Palestinian Media Watch, The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), and Myths and Facts.

2 responses to “The Media’s Assualt on Israel–Finding the Truth”

It boggles the mind that we live in a world where a vast number of global citizens have access to ‘unbiased’ information sources yet, they prefer to perpetuate ignorance and error. People pass on misinformation, inaccuracies and plain old lies as if it were breaking news with absolutely no concern for personal accountability for their part in the continuation of the woes of our world. It must become our individual priority to educate ourselves and verify what we ‘think’ we understand to navigate the issues of our world. Ignorance is not bliss, it is deadly.